Maternal Behavior and Children's Early Emotion Regulation Skills Differentially Predict Development of Children's Reactive Control and Later Effortful Control

The role of maternal behavior and children's early emotion regulation skills in the development of children's reactive control, specifically behavioral impulsivity, and later effortful control was examined in a sample of 435 children. HLM analyses indicated significant growth in reactive control across the toddlerhood to early childhood period. Emotion regulation at age-2 positively predicted initial levels of children's reactive control abilities while maternal overcontrol/intrusiveness predicted lower levels of reactive control growth. Maternal behaviors at age-2 predicted children's effortful control abilities at age-5.5. Emotion regulation did not predict effortful control abilities. Maternal behavior and children's early emotion regulation skills may differentially facilitate the development of reactive and effortful control abilities.     

中文“教师效能感量表”的信、效度研究

本研究以405名中学教师为对象,对中文版教师效能感量表(TES)的心理测量学特征进行了探讨。结果表明中文版TES具有良好的信度、结构效度和同时效度,说明中文版TES是一个可以推广的量表,但在使用过程中应注意一些问题。研究还表明教龄、职称等老师特征变量对教师效能感不存在显著影响。     

父亲情绪表达与儿童社会适应:气质的调节作用

通过对341名学前儿童进行问卷调查和任务测查,考察了父亲情绪表达、儿童气质与儿童社会适应的关系。结果表明:(1)父亲积极情绪表达对儿童社会能力有正向预测作用;父亲消极情绪表达对儿童社会能力具有负向预测作用,而对外显、内隐行为问题有正向预测作用。(2)儿童的积极情绪性对其外显行为问题与社会能力均有显著正向预测作用;消极情绪性对其社会能力有负向预测作用,而对其外显行为问题有正向预测作用;儿童的努力控制对其外显行为问题有较强地负向预测作用,对其社会能力具有正向预测作用。(3)父亲情绪表达与儿童努力控制、消极情绪性对儿童社会适应有显著交互作用,父亲情绪表达对不同气质特点儿童的社会适应具有不同的预测作用。     

Assessing the Child's Cognitive Home Environment Through Parental Report; Reliability and Validity

In a series of investigations with poor minority families, we examined the reliability and validity of the StimQ, an office-based interview of children's cognitive home environment. Researchers and practitioners alike recognize the importance of assessing meaningful dimensions of children's early experiences, particularly in families where children may be at risk for later cognitive delay. To date, methodological approaches to the study of parenting have most often relied on home visits and/or labour-intensive observations and coding. Our findings suggest that valid and reliable data about the cognitive environments of poor children can be obtained through maternal report, thereby offering applied scientists a useful alternative to assessing children's early experiences. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychometric Properties and Norms of the Family Needs Scale

We studied 205 low-income families, using the Family Needs Scale (FNS). Factor analysis of the FNS data resulted on a 7-factor solution with high internal consistency within the various subscales. We provide normative scores based on the factor structure of the FNS. A total of 53 parents completed the FNS on two occasions with an average of four weeks between these two ratings. In general, the test-retest reliabilities were low to moderate. A total of 61 pairs of parents independently rated their families with the FNS. Again, agreement between raters was low to moderate. Several factors that may have detracted from better test-retest and interrater reliability were identified. Our data point to the need for more psychometric studies with the FNS.     

The Mediational Role of Effortful Control and Emotional Dysregulation in the Link Between Maternal Responsiveness and Turkish Preschoolers' Social Competency and Externalizing Symptoms

This cross‐sectional study relied on circumscribed measures of emotion regulation and dysregulation to examine their role in mediating the associations of maternal responsiveness and effortful control with social competency and externalizing symptoms. We examined those associations in an understudied cultural context, Turkey, with 118 preschoolers. Emotion regulation and dysregulation showed differential associations with broad indices of self‐regulation such that emotion dysregulation predicted both low social competency and high externalizing symptoms but emotion regulation was only associated with high social competency. Effortful control was unrelated to emotion regulation but was associated with lower levels of emotion dysregulation. Effortful control had both direct and mediated associations with externalizing and social competency (mediated by lower emotion dysregulation). Findings also showed that maternal responsiveness was associated with better social competency and lower externalizing. Those associations were both singly (through effortful control) and doubly mediated (through effortful control and lower emotion dysregulation), similar to US samples. The study contributes to a better understanding of the factors and mechanisms that speak to children's self‐regulation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

努力控制及其神经基础

本文对努力控制的概念、发展及其神经基础进行了归纳和总结。我们发现努力控制涉及的脑区主要包括背外侧和腹外侧前额叶,前扣带回,顶上和顶下小叶以及辅助运动皮层等。此外,通过分析对比后发现努力控制与执行功能之间在行为表现和神经基础上有密切关系：两者都与个体的学业成绩、情绪状态和攻击行为等有关;努力控制涉及的脑区有很大部分处于具有执行功能的突显网络和额顶控制网络。这些证据表明两者之间可能有共同的脑结构基础。     

Reliability and Validity of a Brief Life Satisfaction Scale with a High School Sample

This study investigated the psychometric properties of a brief life satisfaction scale, the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner et al., 2004a), with a high school age sample. The results revealed preliminary evidence of internal consistency, two-week test–retest reliability, construct validity, and criterion-related validity for research purposes. Expected demographic effects were also obtained. Overall, the findings suggest that the BMSLSS may provide a useful indicator of adolescent life satisfaction in studies in which brevity of measures is an important consideration.     

Tests of the relationship between children's temperament and asthma and of the reliability and validity of the Brief Scale of Temperament

Two studies are reported. One examined the reliability and validity of a brief scale to measure children's temperament; the other tested the relationship of early temperament and the development of asthma. In Study 1, principal caretakers of 46 4- to 7-year-olds, usually the mothers, filled out questionnaires containing the Brief Scale of Temperament (BST) and the Behavioral Style Questionnaire. The caretakers did this twice, about 1 week apart. The first time the children's recent temperament was assessed, and the second time past (> 1 year) temperament was assessed. Internal consistency and correlational analyses revealed substantial reliability and validity for BST assessments of recent and past temperament. Study 2 incorporated the BST in a large-scale survey of 325 families, with parents providing data on their children's asthma and temperament. BST assessments of early (past) temperament were made retrospectively regarding the child's first few years. Comparisons of early temperament revealed no differences between children who developed asthma and those who did not in their overall scores on the BST or for any of the temperament characteristics it measures. In addition, correlational analyses of data for asthmatics showed that early temperament was not related to ratings of the severity of the asthma condition the children developed or the impacts of any of 12 specific asthma triggers, including any involving emotional states, such as stress or worry.     

Validation of the Preschool and Early Childhood Functional Assessment Scale (PECFAS)

Efforts to determine the prevalence of serious emotional disturbance in preschool-aged children have been hampered by the lack of a validated measure. The Preschool and Early Childhood Functional Assessment Scale (PECFAS) is a multi-dimensional measure that assesses the psychosocial functioning of children aged 3–7 years. The concurrent validity and reliability of the PECFAS were assessed in a sample of 30 preschool-aged children in a large Head Start program in Ventura, California. PECFAS ratings based on in-depth interviews were significantly related to parental ratings that the children had mental health problems, psychiatric diagnoses, teacher ratings of the child's need for mental health evaluations, teacher ratings of behavior problems on a standardized screening inventory (DIAL-R), and actual referrals for mental health evaluations. Interrater reliability for the total PECFAS score was high (r = .90) as was internal consistency of the five subscales (alpha = .86). Using the PECFAS scores as a standard, the weighted prevalence of serious emotional disturbance in this West Coast Head Start program was 17%, at the lower end of the current estimated rate of SED for older children in low income samples (18–26%).     

中文版正念教学量表的信效度检验

目的:修订中文版正念教学量表并检验其在中国教师群体中的信效度。方法:使用样本1(n₁=302)进行项目分析、探索性因素分析;样本2(n₂=185)进行验证性因素分析;使用样本1和2检验量表的跨组测量不变性,并考察效标效度;样本3(n₃=30)进行重测信度检验。结果:中文版正念教学量表为二因子结构,包括个体内正念和人际间正念两个分量表,具有良好的结构效度、效标效度及信度。且该量表在小学、初中及高中教师中达到部分测量强等值。结论:该量表适宜在我国中小学教师群体中使用。     

中文版一般自我效能量表的信度和效度检验

该研究以山东省610名高中生为被试,检验了中文版一般自我效能量表（GSES）的信度和效度.结果表明：（1）中文版GSES的有些项目,区分度不高;（2）中文版GSES具有较高的内部一致性信度与分半信度,但重测信度不高;（3）中文版GSES的单维度性没有得到证实;（4）中文版GSES不具有很好的预测效度.     

Item Response Theory Analyses of the Parent and Teacher Ratings of the DSM-IV ADHD Rating Scale

The graded response model (GRM), which is based on item response theory (IRT), was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms in an ADHD rating scale. To accomplish this, parents and teachers completed the DSM-IV ADHD Rating Scale (DARS; Gomez et al., Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 265–274, 1999) for a group of 1,475 primary school-aged children. The results for the discrimination parameters showed that all symptoms for both groups of respondents were generally good for discriminating their respective latent traits. For virtually all symptoms, their threshold values showed moderate to large increases in the level of the latent trait at each subsequent response dichotomy, with the symptoms being especially good at representing the appropriate traits from mean to moderately high trait levels. The item information function values for most symptoms indicated reasonable reliability from, approximately, the mean trait levels to moderately high trait levels. These findings indicate good psychometric properties for the parent and teacher ratings of the DARS. The implications of the findings for the use of the DARS and other similar scales are discussed.     

10～12岁儿童在平衡秤任务上的规则使用及其复杂性

以256名10～12岁儿童为被试,采取规则评估方法探讨了儿童在平衡秤任务上的规则使用类型及其年龄特点,并尝试使用认知复杂性和控制理论对此加以分析和解释.结果表明:(1)除了Siegler所谓的四种规则和补偿规则以外,儿童还使用了规则ⅢA和距离规则,其中规则ⅢA并不特指单一的规则,而是代表儿童在掌握了规则Ⅲ之后向更高级的规则Ⅳ发展的不稳定期和过渡期;(2)10～12岁儿童中使用规则Ⅲ的人数显著多于使用补偿规则的人数,对此认知复杂性和控制理论能够提供较好的解释;(3)规则Ⅰ仍是10～12岁儿童使用的主要规则,并非Siegler认为的主要是4、5岁儿童使用此规则.     

Temperament,coping, and involuntary stress responses in preadolescent children: the moderating role of achievement goal orientation

Background and objectives: Developmental theorists posit that temperament contributes to preadolescent’s stress response styles. Findings from empirical studies, however, have yielded mixed results, thus indicating a need to consider moderators of this relation. Utilizing an analytic framework guided by resiliency theory [Zimmerman, M. A. (2013). Resiliency theory: A strengths-based approach to research and practice for adolescent health. Health Education &; Behavior, 40, 381–383], this study examined achievement goal orientation as a moderator of the relation between temperament and stress response styles.

Methods: 96 preadolescent–parent dyads (M_age?=?10.30 years, range?=?9–12 years) participated in the study. Preadolescents reported on their achievement goal orientation, coping and involuntary stress responses (ISRs) styles and a parent reported on children’s temperament.

Results: Multiple regressions revealed that effortful control positively predicted preadolescent’s predominant use of engagement coping and negatively predicted predominance of ISRs, but only for children with a predominant mastery goal orientation. For preadolescents with a predominant performance goal orientation, effortful control negatively predicted the predominant use of engagement coping and positively predicted predominance of ISRs. Negative affectivity and its interaction with goal orientation did not predict coping or ISR styles.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that a predominant mastery goal orientation may function as a promotive factor by enhancing the contribution of effortful control to engagement coping styles and buffering against unmanaged reactivity.     

Quality of Relationships Between Youth and Community Service Providers: Reliability and Validity of the Trusting Relationship Questionnaire

We examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Trusting Relationship Questionnaire, a brief measure of relationship quality between youth and community-based service providers involved in their care. Data on youth residing in Therapeutic Foster Care and in Group Homes (N = 296) were collected. We identified a one-factor solution for the child version of the measure and a two-factor structure for the adult version: child's perception of the relationship and adult's perception of the relationship. Both versions appear to be highly reliable and possess adequate levels of construct, criterion, and discriminative validity. While no statistically significant age differences were noted on the parent version, on the child version, older youth were more likely to report lower relationship scores. Gender differences were found on both versions: Female youth reported higher scores on the child version as did adults reporters of relationships with female youth, but only for the first factor—child's perception of the relationship. Overall, the TRQ appears to capture the quality of the relationship between service providers and youth in their care, thus bridging a gap in assessment measures.     

Risk-Taking Behavior as a Mediator of the Relationship between Children's Temperament and Injury Liability

The relationship between childhood temperament, risk-taking behavior and injury liability is investigated in a sample of 209 two- to nine-year-old children using parental report. Temperament was found to be significantly related to both risk-taking behavior and the number of injuries sustained; moreover, risk-taking behavior was a significant predictor of injuries. A mediational model was tested and risk-taking behavior was found to mediate the relationship between temperament and injury liability. The implications of these findings are discussed within the context of preventive actions.